Twitario allows you to see your tweets (or those of any Twitter user) in a diary format over a specified period of time. Enter a twitter username or sign in to your Twitter account. Share the collection of past tweets (cutely portrayed and dated as a diary) by clicking "share" at the bottom. Here is a sample diary of tweets from @teachersFirst. New to Twitter? Learn more from TeachersFirst's Twitter for Teachers page.

In the Classroom

This site could be used for students to submit an assignment of tweets they did over a period of time. Or use this site during a presentation on how Twitter works, showing the information contained in a succession of tweets. Have students submit a record of tweets that show their learning over time. Follow a Twitter user who provides resource links for a diary of resources that have been shared. Trace the tweets from the White House, any high profile political figure, or author over a period of time.

Figment: Write Yourself In is a terrific program for both readers and writers! Looking for something new to read? Want to get your student's or your own writing published? You don't even have to register to read or listen to a book. It's all free. If you or your students are aspiring authors you can register and publish your writing here. Figment also has contests where the community votes for the best piece of writing for a certain prompt. Books are tagged, so you can search by tag. The Figment library has all the genres listed for you to click on and search, a section for "newest additions," "recently updated," and "all the rage." For reading and listening, the only skill you will need to know is to know how to search the site. If your intent is to publish yours or your student's writing, you will need to register. Be aware that Figment is designed for ALL kinds of writers and may include some writing that is not "kid friendly." Click the Educators link in the footer to access newer features specifically for teachers.

In the Classroom

There are several ways you can use this site as a place to publish. Some may involve using other tools. For example, with younger students: Once your students have completed a piece of writing, have them submit it to the class using MixedInk reviewed here. The class can then collaborate by choosing ideas from any of the pieces submitted and publishing a "class" approved story, poem, etc. on Figment. With older students: Have them submit their poems, short stories, current event articles, or persuasive writing to MixedInk for peer edit and advice. After the class has collaborated on the writing, submit to Figment for a more general audience. Some teachers have their students write novels for National Novel Writing Month, and at "Figment: Write Yourself In" they will be able to publish them.

Students will need a screen name that is not their real name, and a password. See the Profile area for Scholastic's "You Are What You Read" reviewed here for several suggestions for creating a screen name. For younger students you may want to have a "class account" and supply the password. Be sure you and your students write their screen name and password down. Just make sure they sign their writing with their screen name. With older students you can use the same procedure as above, or students can sign up with their own email. Read tips for safely managing email registrations here.

If school policies and parents allow it, You may want to introduce your gifted student-writers to this site as a place where they can publish and get feedback from a broader audience. The safest way may be to set up groups as a teacher, including other student writers from other classrooms and grade levels. Gifted students interact well in multi-age settings, especially if they have common interests. Have the history buffs work together on accurate historical fiction related to the time periods you are studying or have your advanced science students write up their research collaboratively using Figment. They might even try their had at writing some science fiction based on concepts you are studying.

Flashcard Maker, as the title implies, is an online tool to create flashcards. This site also has a healthy bank of prefabricated flashcards that could easily save time in meeting your needs. The link to "Explore Flashcards" allows you to search for prefabricated cards sorted by subject and topic. You can save as sets of cards with tags and share with friends. You can add images to cards, making them not only more interesting to use, but also more versatile since you can identify and learn more visual things than standard flashcards. You can change the flashcard theme, font size, and viewing order.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Create flashcards for your classes using Flashcard Maker-- or have them make their own. Try using them as a introduction to a concept, then again in the practice of the concept, and again as a final review. It is a nice three for one creation deal! This would be great for teaching Latin prefixes and suffixes of words to students, use in science terms, or for standardized test preparation. Try having students create flashcards and share with each other to quiz themselves within their own groups. Teach students in higher grades how to create flash cards with multiple blanks to challenge their brain to remember more pieces of the puzzle. Show them how to carefully read through their classroom notes and underline the most important word or words in a sentence. Then have them leave out the most important words for their flashcards. Learning support teachers might want to have small groups create cards together to review together before tests. Have students create flashcard sets to "test" classmates on what they "teach" in oral reports.

Muvee Cloud is a photo sharing site that allows you to save, share, and make videos of your photos. The tool also allows you to merge your photos and movies with your friends' and family's photos and videos to create amazing videos. The power of this site -- in contrast to most slide based shows -- is the collaboration and addition of others' pictures, the ability to pull in images from any webpage, and the ease of adding video clips to the shows. If it can be uploaded to your computer, it can be added to the show!

In the Classroom

Have students create their own advertisements for upcoming school events such as fundraisers or plays and musicals. Have students in the yearbook club use the site to submit pictures for publication in the school yearbook. Have students use this tool to make digital portfolios in science class by having them take pictures of their labs and activities and use as a final project grade. Rather than a tradition report on a country, person, or invention...have students use this colorful tool to create a multimedia presentation!

Use Tineye as a reverse image search engine. Tineye's unique image search engine looks for the same actual image -- not the description. This is a great way to find out where else an image is in use on the Internet. To use this simple and free service: upload or enter the link to an image on the Internet. Tineye will search the Internet to find the same image even if it has been rotated, altered or cropped by using image recognition technology. What a terrific way to discover the origin of an image or find those using it without permission. Note that the maximum upload size is 1 MB. Use this free service without registering. Create an account to use other features such as saving your searches. Registration does require email verification. Download the applet for Firefox or Chrome for ability to instantly use the service. You must have the ability to install browser add-ons to use the add-on version of the tool.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This tool is best used by a teacher to determine whether class pictures have been used elsewhere or determine the origin of pictures students have used in projects. Check the origin of student-used pictures to determine source. Determine whether pictures (yours or others) have been used without permission. Easily determine whether pictures have also been altered.

Teachers' Domain is a free digital media service for educational use. All of the material are from public broadcasting and its partners. This site aggregates thousands of media rich resources like lessons, videos, learning games and professional development resources. All resources can be found by subject area. In addition, each subject has sub areas to help you refine your search even more. You are allowed 7 views of material without registering.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site to find activities and resources for all subject areas. Use the games and videos with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use the learning interactives as a center for students to access or put on your classroom website or blog. Teachers you can also use the professional development area for previews of available online courses (cost) and lots of handouts on different teaching strategies.

Grok: To understand thoroughly and intuitively. Instagrok is an intelligent search engine that improves independent learning on any topic. It retrieves information from around the web but goes one step further by helping you navigate your way through the results, identifying and rating the difficulty of important concepts and creating review quizzes. It also displays concept definitions and the relationships between concepts in the left column. Be sure to watch the video for information on using Instagrok.

In the Classroom

Use this search engine to find information about important concepts and focus on student learning. Encourage students to "grok" any concept or term they encounter to gain a general sense of what they will learn. Display a "grok" of every unit topic as you begin the unit and use this visual display for students to access prior knowledge and make observations about what they see. Place a link on your class site, wiki, or blog for easy access or on a classroom computer for quicker searching. Demonstrate how to use this search engine on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this tool to save students' time while researching.

Need kid-friendly online news? This safe site, written for kids, by kids, offers news from a younger point-of-view. You can create a class page where you can load a variety of articles, add a book list, a calendar, favorite sites list, add lesson plan instructions, monitor student comments, and more. DOGOnews is kid friendly, colorful, and flexible. After all, DOGO means young or small in Swahili. You can select articles from a number of categories (Social Studies, Science, World, Current Events, etc.). There is an integrated dictionary for challenging words and maps for geographical context. Some of the articles include short video clips. Students may leave brief comments about each article (no login required). Also, typing the word "video" in the search box will bring up the Video of the Week for the past several weeks. The videos reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Freemake Video Converter, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube. In addition, find a Book and Movie section with a brief summary for the book or movie, and comments. You don't have to join to read the articles, but you do need to join to create a class page. There are many benefits to creating a class page, and it's all free! Don't want to create a class page? You can also embed articles on your current web page.

In the Classroom

Non-fiction reading and background knowledge have found a new emphasis with The Common Core State Standards. It is more important now than ever to help connect students with quality, non-fiction reading and viewing material. Find great news resources and videos of the week to create assignments for your class at DOGOnews. You may want to create a class page and load several news articles. Have students choose from the articles, and email it to themselves. Have students print out the article and complete a "close reading" of the article by annotating it. Then have students who chose the same article get together in groups to discuss their reactions about the article, create a summary together, and create four or five open-ended questions about the article. Lastly, create groups of four, with each student having a different article, and have them present their article to the others in the group and ask them their open-ended questions to trigger a discussion. Create a class magazine from the articles. Or better yet, have students create a multimedia presentation using UtellStory, reviewed here. This site allows users to narrate a picture. Challenge students to find a photo (legally permitted to be reproduced), and then narrate the photo as if it is a news report. Strengthen reading comprehension by having an 'article du jour' on your interactive whiteboard or projector as students arrive. Link this site on your homepage.

Youngzine is news and more for the young. Enjoy the different articles, comics, videos, etc. without signing up, or you can sign up to have full access to everything on this safe site, including teacher tools. General subjects include World News, Science & Technology, Our Earth, Society & Arts. For each class, teachers get a blog where they can post assignments and have students respond. Teachers can register their class for free. You can include specific articles and quizzes for each assignment. Comments are moderated to prevent inappropriate classroom content.

For each of your classes, you see a full report of each student's activities by going to your classroom tab. Youngzine also provides a safe "blog" environment for classrooms - a constructive, creative, and controlled way for teachers to create classroom assignments and foster discussions about current events! The blog can be completely private so outsiders cannot see student comments. Teachers control these settings.

In the Classroom

Have your students make comments on articles (public comments), take quizzes, rate articles, and participate in contests. You can create custom assignments and have students respond and discuss, right on Youngzine! This is a great way to assess student's understanding and create an arena for a discussion/debate between class students. Or, ask your students to summarize an article, as a way to encourage them to think and write.

There is also a tab for "U Write." This section appears to allow students to write about issues in their community, or programs they've heard about to help a suffering communities. You might consider having your students look at the different articles and decide on a community to help. Have them vote on the community they would like to help by using Thinkmeter reviewed here.

Big Marker is a new, free service for creating and participating in online conferences, chats, webinars, or other get-togethers. Big Marker is a good service for online tutoring sessions, sessions for brainstorming, and any other online activity where people from multiple computer locations can congregate to share ideas. Create a public or private meeting room. Making the room public allows anyone to join. (There are many upcoming sessions that are public and listed on the main page.) Provide a password to other participants when making the room private. Share screens through the presentation board or write on the provided whiteboard. Chat through many methods including text, audio, and video. The creator of the Big Marker conference controls audio and video options and who is heard throughout the chats. Try the demo room first to become acquainted with the tools available and the interface.

In the Classroom

Use Big Marker for online tutoring or peer tutoring sessions and providing additional lessons to students for enrichment. Use Big Marker for brainstorming, planning, and completing projects. Create professional development opportunities for others in your school or elsewhere. Use for extracurricular activities, home schooling, or other online events. Set up a Big Marker get together during snow days so students can stay up to date with projects and assignments.

Jiskha Homework Help is a large collection of resources to help students learn and improve their grades. The homework help forum welcomes posts to their large group of professional experts and teachers who are there to receive questions. A well organized array of articles, links, and other searchable resources on all kinds of school subjects round out this really well thought-out site for students of all ages. Archives are available to find answers to previous questions, simply type in a search term to find questions, articles, and directories related to the search. Other searches can be done by grade level or school subject by choosing links on the left side of the page. Most answers are provided within a couple of days so this site shouldn't be counted on for last-minute homework questions!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share this site with students to use at home for homework help. Use the site on your interactive whiteboard to answer questions that may come up in the classroom. Have students create "talking pictures" to illustrate responses to homework questions that were answered on the site using Fotobabble reviewed here.

This site is a wiki which encourages you to add to their growing list of books from countries around the world. Joining is free and easy. Students who join can then create their own wiki in booklist format. It is not necessary to join to simply read the booklists, which are organized alphabetically by country.

In the Classroom

Encourage students to search here to find names of books from around the world. Have them check back often as it is a growing site. With school (and parent) permission, students can join and add their own booklists of American books or books they have enjoyed from countries they are interested in. Have students read one of the books and then create a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.

Shelfari is a community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. Create a virtual bookshelf, discover new books, connect with friends, and learn more about your favorite books. You can read, write and edit plot summaries, popular quotes, character descriptions and more than a dozen other types of book factoids. The site can be searched without registration; however, free registration is required to create a virtual bookshelf. (Although they do not openly "advertise," Amazon obviously hopes this site will inspire you to buy more books. If you feel so moved, we hope you will make your purchase by entering through the Amazon search at the bottom of this page so TeachersFirst can benefit from the donations Amazon makes to our non-profit service as a result of your purchase.)This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Before or after reading classroom novels, pull up the book on your interactive whiteboard or projector to view what others have written about the book. Create a classroom account and your own virtual bookshelf as a resource for students to find books that they will enjoy. Create different bookshelves by subject, genre, etc. Show this site on your interactive whiteboard to demonstrate how to use the site and find books of interest. Use examples on the site, then have students create their own book summaries (using this site's format) using Google Docs reviewed here. Add the Shelfari widget to your classroom website or blog for easy access for students.

Utubersity presents the best educational videos available on YouTube in an organized, easy to find way to watch and learn. The site can be searched in several ways. The home page offers choices of newest, popular, and featured videos. At the top of the page, you can choose from the categories of lectures, documentaries, or conferences. More specific categories of lecture topics are included on the left of the home page, here you can narrow down searches to areas such as geography, sports, education, biology, economy, and much more. If searching for something more specific, type your query in the search bar to find included results. Over 18,000 videos are available with more being added all the time, making this site worth bookmarking for future use. If YouTube is not accessible in your school, you could always view that at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a resource for videos to use in the classroom. Have art students use Screenr (reviewed here) to make narrated recordings about videos that they find on this site. Share this site with gifted students who are delving deeper into topics than your current curriculum allows. This is a great site to share on your class blog, wiki, or website for students to use for extra practice or advancement.

JustPaste.it is a quick, online way to share text and images with others. It features an easy-to-use text editor with text formatting function. Just paste text from another webpage or word processor and text formatting and images will be preserved. By using the "Upload images" module you can easily add new graphics to your notes. If you have written your note originally using a word processor: Microsoft Word, MS Works or Open Office, simply upload it to the server using "Import from file" function. Text formatting and graphics will be preserved. When finished creating your text, click Publish to receive the html code, forum code, and url link. Or create your own custom url through the Custom page name option at the top right. Notes can also be edited through the link provided after publication. The finished product can also be easily saved as a PDF file, just scroll to the bottom of the page and click the save to PDF link. This tool is simpler than setting up a Google Docs account, since it does not require email registration.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Copy and paste important information found on websites while viewing as a class into Just Paste It, then save as a pdf for students to have a hard copy or share a link to the information through your classroom website or blog. Challenge students to create their own "Paste It" to use to take research notes, write study notes for vocabulary, or many other uses. Have students create individual pages as part of classroom projects then share them using a tool such as Padlet (reviewed here) to create an online bulletin board to use to display information learned. Why would a teacher share text or images this way? Teachers can offer an assignment, a writing prompt, a vocab list, a story starter, handout, or even a permission slip for parents to download, print, and sign.

This site is exactly what its title indicates, but it's more. It's not just an audio dictionary program. At How to Pronounce Words and Use Them you see a selection of videos with the word, and different forms of the word being used in context. These are actual news stories, lectures, etc. where people are using the word for real! When you first arrive, you see a sample video. You can also click on one of the sample words at the bottom to see everything offered when you search a word. There is information about why it's important to see facial expressions when learning to pronounce a new word and why it's important not to use the word in isolation when learning to pronounce it. Be aware: this site allows any word to be typed into the text box, including words inappropriate for the classroom. Be sure students know consequences for inappropriate use of this tool just as they do for writing words on the board or in their assignments..

In the Classroom

If YouTube is blocked at your school, use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube and to convert online videos such as the ones you find on YouTube into a portable format you can play at school.

Whether you're an English Language Arts teacher or an ESL/ELL teacher, this site can help your students learn new words. You might want to have students keep lists of words they come across in their reading. Then have them take turns using this site (at a center or individual laptops). Or, if YouTube is blocked at your school, have this site posted on your webpage for parent and student use at home.

If you are a science, history, math, or other subject area teacher, you might want to embed a few of the videos on your own page for weekly vocabulary.

The quality of the information on the videos is excellent. In the Common Core State Standards there is an emphasis on background knowledge. This program will not only help your students with vocabulary and word pronunciation, but will help them build their background knowledge!

You will also find links to make your own rubrics (or adapt others), adapt or create problem based check lists, find Webquests or Thinkquests, find tools for students to write persuasively, and you can view online lessons or create your own. Those are just a few of the resources you'll find at 4teachers.org. Enjoy 4teachers video channel to see tutorials and educational videos. You might also consider joining in a weekly teacher blog on structured topics and see the featured site of the week.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This site is a great site to begin with basic understanding of technology in education. Tutorials explain many of the basics educators must have. Ready to use lessons, rubrics, and calendar resources are easily available. This is also a great site for Spanish resources. Share with colleagues to help boost your technology savvy classroom!

Create private or public sign ups for easy creation of snack lists, volunteer sheets, party planners, parent/teacher conference planning, or project preparation. Sign up for free using an email address (email verification not required.) View your created sign ups under "My Account." Be sure to view the Frequently Asked Questions for help in using this simple resource. Find complete guides for an even smoother sign up process under the "Planning Resources" tab. Follow the directions for creating your sign up including all the details. "Invite" and "Publish" to set your privacy options as well as enter the email information to send to others. Add a web button to your site to take users directly to your home page to find active sign ups (find this function under "My Account").

In the Classroom

The possibilities are endless. Use this for planning parties, bringing in materials for projects, and any other activity that requires coordination. If you have limited technology availability, this is a great way for teachers or students to sign up for time slots to use laptops, iPads, video cameras, or a podcast recording station. Go paperless with your signups! Share this tool at Back to School night (and with your room parent or PTO). Organize your parent/teacher conferences. Plan student research of class projects using this resource. Help students build organizational skills by having them "plan" a mythical event such as a museum opening for their Famous Americans exhibit.

Use data from a spreadsheet to instantly create an interactive map. Search the Gallery for some great ideas for using spreadsheets to make a map. Watch the "What is this all about" video to see how easy it is to create a data map. Click "Create your map" to upload an excel or Google Docs file to be used. Users must be able to collect data using either an Excel spreadsheet or Google Spreadsheet. Upload the file to view the graphical data. Click Share to send to others. View your data in a graphical way! Data uploaded is viewable by the public. No login is required. Be sure that information used to create the graph is not private information.

In the Classroom

Consider identifying water/electric/gas usage in various areas in your school district. Use data about car ownership to identify trends in various locations. Collect information about wildlife sightings, traffic patterns, and other interesting information to view as a graph. Have students research countless trends from around the world and create maps to share ad explain on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Be sure to ask questions about what the data implies. Why does one location differ from another? Have students hypothesize what the data means, then research information to back up their hypothesis.

This ESL/ELL site has many interactive exercises in the categories of picture dictionary, vocabulary enhancement exercises, e-mail and letter writing, general English, listening, business English, and student activities. You will also find Cambridge exam prep (FCE and CAE). Options for ESL/ELL students include looking at the pages in German, Spanish, Hungarian and Korean. Many of the exercises are interactive, and include spelling practice, cloze exercises (mainly using prepositions and articles correctly), and fill in the blank. Since this site is British, it includes British spellings and test prep for tests usually taken in the U.K.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

You might want to put different categories from this program on different computers around your classroom. Have students, or pairs of students, rotate through the computers to experience spelling practice, vocabulary development, and a cloze reading exercise all in one period.